Landscaping insurance in Michigan

What a Michigan landscaper has to carry and file

Michigan doesn't license landscaping by name. What it does license touches three parts of the business: concrete and excavation work on homes, pesticide application, and the backflow side of irrigation.

Residential hardscape and the M&A license

Michigan LARA licenses residential builders and maintenance and alteration (M&A) contractors. The M&A definition includes anyone paid to improve a residential structure, build a garage, or lay concrete on residential property. M&A licenses are issued by trade, including concrete, masonry and excavation. Jobs where the whole undertaking costs less than $600 are exempt, and splitting a job to get under that line doesn't count.

In practice this lands on design-build firms that pour a concrete pad for an outdoor kitchen, set footings for a pergola, or dig out a basement egress area while they're on site. Mowing, planting and bed maintenance aren't on the M&A trade list. Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti add their own local layer for fertilizer applicators (see the cities below).

Whether a paver patio or segmental retaining wall counts as M&A concrete or masonry work isn't spelled out in the statute. If your install crew pours or lays anything at a house, ask LARA before you bid. We found no GL, comp or bond minimum in those sections.

The commercial applicator license and its insurance floor

Anyone who applies pesticides commercially or as part of their job must be a certified or registered applicator, and commercial applicators must be at least 18. A company that holds itself out as being in the spray business also needs a commercial applicator license for each place of business. The licensee must be certified and have two application seasons working for a commercial applicator, or a relevant bachelor's degree plus one season. Lawn work sits in Category 3A, turf grass pest management, and beds and shade trees in 3B. Certification means passing MDARD exams for each category you work in, so a crew that adds tree and shrub spraying to a lawn route needs the 3B exam as well.

The license application must include proof of financial responsibility. Under rule R 285.636.14, a turf and ornamental licensee keeps general liability in force for the whole licensing period with at least:

• $100,000 per occurrence for bodily injury
• $25,000 per occurrence for property damage

The policy can't exclude bodily injury and property damage that arise from pesticide applications, so a general liability form with a broad pollution exclusion won't satisfy the rule on its own.

One policy may cover several licensed locations owned by the same company. If you hold more than one category, the higher requirement applies. And if the insurance expires or is canceled mid-term, the license is suspended and must be surrendered until coverage is back.

Michigan's phosphorus law sits on top of the license. Fertilizer labeled with available phosphate can't go on turf unless a soil or tissue test from the past three years shows a deficiency, or you're establishing new turf from seed or sod in its first growing season.

Irrigation: backflow, not a license

Michigan has no state irrigation contractor license. Backflow is the regulated piece. Grand Rapids Water System says the plumbing code requires backflow preventers on lawn irrigation systems and annual testing, and it doesn't let irrigation contractors run the test themselves.

When Michigan comp kicks in for a seasonal crew

Michigan comp applies to private employers who regularly have three or more employees at one time. Smaller outfits aren't automatically clear. Count the calendar, not just heads: if any one worker has held a full-time schedule (35-hour weeks) and kept it up for 13 weeks or more inside the last 52, Michigan's law applies to you too. Keep a single full-time crew member from April into midsummer and you've likely crossed it.

A few Michigan specifics:

• General contractors carry your risk if you don't. When a principal hires an uninsured contractor, Michigan makes the principal answer for comp benefits to that contractor's injured workers, with a right to seek repayment from the contractor. That's why GCs and property managers ask for your certificate.
• Owner exclusions. Named partners can be excluded by endorsement. An LLC manager-member or corporate officer owning at least 10% of a company with no more than 10 members or stockholders can opt out by written notice to the carrier.
• Penalties. Running without required comp is a misdemeanor in Michigan. Fines reach $1,000 and jail time reaches six months, each uninsured day is its own offense, and an injured worker can sue you in civil court.

Class codes matter here too. Michigan's rating organization, the Compensation Advisory Organization of Michigan, lists lawn maintenance under 9102 and landscape gardening, the new installation work, under 0042. A mowing crew coded as installers may pay the higher rate until an audit sorts it out. H-2B workers go on the policy like everyone else on payroll. The Workers' Disability Compensation Agency handles compliance, and our workers' comp page covers audits.

Get a quote for your landscaping business →

Michigan risks underwriters ask about

Fertilizing near lakes and ponds

Michigan bars fertilizing turf within 15 feet of any surface water unless there's a 10-foot natural vegetative buffer, or you use a spreader guard, deflector shield or drop spreader and keep product at least 3 feet from the water. Washing spreaders where the rinse water can reach a drain or waterway is also banned. Lakefront homes and pond-side HOA common areas are where this rule bites, and where a runoff complaint can turn into a chemical liability claim.

Markers and service agreements on lawn routes

For broadcast or foliar turf and ornamental work other than golf courses, Michigan applicators post rigid, weather-resistant markers 4 inches high by 5 inches wide at the primary points of entry, with the bottom of the marker at least 12 inches above the turf, and tell the customer to leave them up for 24 hours. You also need an oral or written service agreement with each customer before the first application.

MISS DIG for powered digging

Michigan's dig law counts grading, trenching or augering with power tools or equipment as excavation. File a dig notice at least 72 hours before you start, not counting the hours of weekends and holidays, and no more than 14 calendar days ahead. Skid-steer grading, irrigation trenchers and post-hole augers all count, and a hit line lands on your liability policy.

Michigan markets we cover

Michigan pricing: what moves the number

The state's pesticide minimum rarely sets your premium. At $100,000 bodily injury and $25,000 property damage per occurrence, it sits well below the limits most commercial clients want, so your HOA and property-manager contracts usually decide the limits you buy.

Comp is the other swing factor. Getting the 9102 and 0042 payroll split right, and counting that one full-time seasonal hire, changes both the deposit and the year-end audit.

Your price depends on your payroll and class codes, your revenue, the services you offer (especially chemical work), your trucks and trailers, your claims history and the limits you choose. The landscaping insurance cost guide breaks down each factor.

Get a quote for your landscaping business →

Licensed for Michigan landscaping accounts

Landscaper Insurance Group is a brand of The Allen Thomas Group, licensed in Michigan (License #0106519, NPN 7642818). Michigan lawn-care, install and grounds companies can request a quote online, and a licensed agent reviews it with you before anything is priced.